Banira Sorutode
by Merceni
Summary: Sweet like Vanilla, Salty like Tears.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** Set after episode 14 of the Anime and goes from there, this chapter should work as a one-shot if I don't publish any more. Meant to publish this sooner, but was never satisfied and kept rewriting it. Regardless, I hope those who come across this story might enjoy what it offers.

 **Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)

 _Two Packets of 750 Yen raw pork cutlets. Normally, It wouldn't really concern her how much it cost, nor what kind of meat it was since she never cooked in the first place. But now they were sitting in the back of her empty refrigerator and she didn't know what to do with them._

 _Well, one of them anyway._

 _Ami had made the mistake of opening one of those packets last night, and, was less than pleased. Really, she almost gagged when the scent of raw pork hit her nostrils, and repulsed she had ended up dropping it on the spot. The meat flopped onto the tile floor, and as she bent down to pick it up, she slipped on the meat juices that had spilled from the styrofoam packaging onto the floor. Supermarket meat didn't even have any runoff so what the hell! Now frustrated, in her rage she flung the slimy slab away from her to banish it from her sight..only to end up knocking over a box of packaged tea, sending leaves flying into the pan of heated oil on the stove. Thus was the sight her aunt came upon last night, of one angry Kawashima furiously trying to put out a fire as the room started filling with not so fragrant tea smoke. A burned hand and a few panicked sprays of fire extinguisher foam later, and Ami was done trying to cook for the night, and certainly no night ever after being reprimanded by her aunt for her ill attempts at cooking, when clearly, she couldn't without meeting major catastrophe..._

 _..So much for that pork with ginger that Ryuuji had suggested and given her, and though he had claimed they were extras that he couldn't possibly finish, she highly doubted that given Taiga's stomach…._

Kawashima was interrupted from her thoughts with the sound of Yuri-Sensei finishing up her 'lecture' and letting them out for the day. Ami had taken to daydreaming once it became apparent that Sensei was still mostly despondent as unbeknownst to Taiga, she was listening from behind the door when called those rude "single lady" remarks the other day. This weather combined with Sensei's dour mood led to an unproductive day listening to the rain patter against the window next to her as Sensei's cloud of depression hung over the class. The only one who wasn't really affected was Haruta, who like usual, was bouncing with energy. Overall, most of the class had taken to less scholarly pursuits, from looking at their phones hidden behind textbooks, to half-muted gossip between various cliques. Ami, on the other hand, had been more interested in nursing her burnt finger and watching Taiga squabble again for the thousandth time with Ryuuji, who was being poked and prodded into packing his belongings faster. She turned her head away as whatever it was about, really didn't matter from her perspective anyway, not if it didn't involve her directly..

It wasn't until everyone else had already left class 2-C when Kawashima finally moved to collect her belongings, having already dismissed her friends' requests to go to warm up at Sudoh-Bucks with them. As much as she liked her friends, Ami wasn't in the mood today to put her mask on, not today. Alone, she made her way through the near empty halls of Ohashi High.

Reaching the entrance, she was greeted with curtain of rain pouring down from the sky. Apparently she had been in her seat for a bit longer than she had thought, and she wouldn't be able to get home without an umbrella, an umbrella that wasn't there. Not unless she wanted to get soaked in the process. Normally she would have checked the weather forecast if she hadn't been so preoccupied with setting her kitchen on fire. Guess she would have to wait the rain out for a lack of better alternatives, as the library was closed early to accommodate the new shipment of textbooks which have yet to be sorted, and she didn't want to get in the way of the janitor's cleaning by sitting near the vending machines. Sighing, Kawashima sat down on the steps of the entrance, tucking her legs in and placing her head atop her knees. Closing her eyes, she hugged her legs closer, preparing for a drawn-out and miserable stay there.

It wasn't a long wait.

(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)-(^w^)

For the last thirty minutes all Ami heard was the unending sound of raindrops splattering against the pavement. But hearing footsteps sloshing through nearby puddles made her ears perk up. Looking ahead, Ami squinted her eyes to make out the figure in the rain, It wasn't someone she had missed leaving, but someone actually going towards the school? That was unexpected, the rain had only gotten worse in the past half hour she had been trapped there, and the teachers would usually use the side entrance of the school to leave so who could or would in this wea..

"Takasu?" Ami eyes widened slightly as she watched him pass her, though she made no move to follow him with more than her eyes.

"Kawashima?.." Ryuuji started, but remembering his purpose, turned away and began shifting through his locker "Why are you still here? I'm sure you would have been gone long before any of us even got to the front doors."

Oh. Ryuuji wasn't even looking at her while talking, She was being put second in favor of an _Inanimate Object_ , like hell she was going to let that pass.

"I.. kinda forgot my umbrella at home..Whaaat, did you come back for Ami-Chan~?" Ami began to tease lightly with a small grin.

"..." Was Ryuuji's response as he continued to rummage through his belongings before pulling out what he was looking for"I was here to grab this, Taiga had left her photos of the school festival in here and wanted me to grab it."

Her grin dropped, both from having been pretty much ignored, and because of hearing THAT girl's name being mentioned again. Always the priority on his mind, doting over Aisaka one way or another. Like going back out into this rain just for a photo that can be picked up the day after.

"You know, you shouldn't always play father for her like that, letting the tiger cling so much to you" Ami muttered under her breath. Too bad there was little point voicing her thoughts, not if he was perfectly content to play that role. However strange that notion was to her.

"Say that again, didn't catch that clearly."

"Nothing"

"..Alright then, I got what I needed so I'll be heading off, Taiga's waiting on me." As he shut his locker and secured Taiga's photos in his bag, Ryuuji made his way towards the entryway past her. Pulling a sleek orange umbrella out from the rackstand, Ryuuji walked out the doors and unfolded his umbrella, stepping out into the rain. Wait, just like that he was already leaving? Oh.."well, bye then Takasu-kun~." She called out with an upbeat tone and a smile, but however much she tried, her eyes could never match the rest of her. Under normal circumstances it was easy to act, to pretend to be more than she was, but today she couldn't, not to him, not to the empty room she occupied. And like that, Kawashima Ami was alone again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:** \\(^w^)/ I write slow. Drop, Flop, and Throw.

 **Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

 _For Ami, just one thought was eating away at her mind. It wasn't some frivolous relationship-centric question many people her age were still figuring out, she believed she was past that stage. Rather, her question was surrounding the thought that before she had come to Ohashi High, parting with people never hurt. Sure, she'd remember people's names, laugh or flash a smile during chance encounters, but when all was done and past, not once did she look back at those she left behind. Her belief had always been that once a person was gone, they were best forgotten. Yet something had changed. Before, it hadn't ever pained her to see someone go, so...why is it now when she sees the back of his jacket, as footsteps became more faint, and the distance between them ever widening..._

 _Why was it so painful to let him walk away, when it was so straightforward with everyone else?_

 _Yet, despite everything urging her to act, why couldn't Ami bring herself to stand? When Ami wanted something she wouldn't hesitate to take it, so why then couldn't she move her limbs, raise her voice, anything at all? And most of all, why was she letting him walk towards…Towards?_

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

"Oi, Kawashima, you coming?" Ryuuji said, back turned away as he held his umbrella waiting for her.

Silence was Ami's only response as she looked at him, confused and uncertain as to this turn of events.

"..I'm going to leave you here if you aren't coming."

She didn't want to be left alone.

With that thought, she scrambled quickly to follow Ryuuji, moving to catch up with him lest he made good on his words. Making sure her belongings were safe inside her bag, Ami was quick to match his pace, tucking her bag under her arms. Ducking her head under the umbrella's rim, she walked slightly ahead of him, still covered by the wide umbrella, but just far enough so that Ryuuji couldn't see her face. Or more importantly, the redding hue that was spreading across it. Turning her gaze in the opposite direction, for a short while, there were no words exchanged. While Ami would like to say that just walking along in silence was perfectly comfortable with her, it wasn't. She began fidgeting with the bag-strap on her shoulders, this was one of the few opportunities she had and not doing anything wouldn't cut it.

"Ne..Takasu-kun, where are we walking to exactly? I haven't told you where I lived..not unless you want to know, Ami-Chan's ok with that so long as it's Ta-ka-su-kun~".

"..Sure" Came Ryuuji's monotone reply. Her shoulders stiffened slightly in irritation, she was hoping for a little more of a response than that. Frowning, Ami turned her head around looking backwards at him, purple eyes meeting brown. He was just giving her suspicious looks like she was going to do something horrible. Not that she could blame him, but still.

"..Really? _The_ Ami-Chan basically invites you to walk her to her house and _this_ is how excited you are?...Urgh." Her eyes twitched, now she was really getting annoyed.

"I don't recall being invited to anything…anyways I was actually just going to walk you to the store to pick up an umbrella so you could make your own way home." Ryuuji responded. "And it's not like you actually want me to walk you home. Anyways, Taiga is over right now, If you were to come with me, well, you know how you would squabble with Taiga."

"Like it's my fault that little...is so damn irritating all the time." Ami said vexed by the mention of _that_ girl's name. Seriously, how often was she with him?

"Why do you even.." Ryuuji began but was cut off by Ami beginning to rant about various things like Taiga wiping her hands on her expensive designer clothing to a thousand other offenses against humanity Taiga supposedly committed.

"Anddd..I think that proves my point" Ryuuji hurriedly interjected, cutting Ami's words short before she could go off on another tangent again. Good grief, He was best off keeping the two separate whenever possible, nothing but headaches could arise otherwise...It was rare to see Kawashima to lose her cool to this degree, so it was surprising to see her go off like this. Really, when he thought about it, he hadn't seen her open up much since she beat up that overly obsessed fan. Which wasn't a bad thing necessarily, Though he wished it weren't just to express her disdain of Taiga.

There was a momentary pause in the conversation, as Ami took her time to cool her mood somewhat. Aisaka still annoyed her, but ranting at Ryuuji wouldn't change anything. She wasn't even that angry at Taiga anyways. She should just push the topic away from unpleasant rude mood-souring short-ass..wait. Ok so Ami was more than annoyed, but her earlier point still stands, new topic.

"So..I would have thought you would've just left me behind, you looked really focused on getting back to Aisaka-san." Ami said, referring to earlier, changing gears to drive the conversation elsewhere. Guessing from Ryuuji's expression, he seemed glad to change topics, but less so from her actual words.

"..I'm not that bad, don't have so little faith in me."

"Oh? So you wouldn't leave Ami-chan behind? Heh, so you're not that useless at least~"

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean! It's just, I'm not the type of person to leave their friends behind. It's not like I didn't know you forgot your umbrella. You came in earlier with your head wet during class..Don't you recall Taiga..uh" Ryuuji nervously paused, unwilling to finish the rest of his sentence..but ultimately decided to continue "She was running around you before class, saying you looked like a, a wet Chihuahua that got dragged through the streets... Anyways, At first I thought that you were going to share an umbrella with your other friends, but it looks like that wasn't the case." Ryuuji tried to give an apologetic smile, but Ami wasn't paying attention anymore, her thoughts were currently elsewhere.

Had she really been that absent minded to have not noticed the light shower that had begun falling as she walked to class? Normally, she would have been both embarrassed at her outwards appearance being tainted by looking less than perfect, and from being as unaware to her surroundings as to not even notice Taiga being an little mosquito again. But neither of these were on her mind, really, what she was thinking about was his first sentence.

He called her a friend…Well, She guessed that was what they were now. Anyhow, a small smile still appeared on her face, for even if it was less than what she really wanted, it wasn't that bad. After all, she was here with Ryuuji now.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

Ami clutched her jacket closer as a new salvo of rain started coming down from the sky. The rain had gotten worse in the short time they had been walking together, pulling the two into closer proximity under the safety of Ryuuji's umbrella. But Ami hadn't grabbing him by the arm or anything of the like, instead they were pretty much just shoving their shoulders stiffly up against each other. Still, as uncomfortable her muscles were, it was amusing to see Takasu tensed up from being so close to her, and shifting her bag to her other shoulder to remove physical barriers made it worse. Her lips curved upwards, she was so mean. Not to mention that being so close to him now, even through his heavy jacket, Ryuuji was really warm.

"Ne, Kawashima. So have you been eating better like I asked before? Your complexion looks alot better now" Ryuuji said (to her embarrassment), having pointed out her reddening face and mistaken it as better eating habits.

"So how do you like pork with ginger? Did you search up recipes online for it, or did you try something else?" Ryuuji continued, looking at her expectantly. Ami swallowed, she didn't really want to recount yesterday's glorious failure of an attempt to cook..

"Uh...hehe about that.. Ami-Chan didn't _actually_ eat it.."

"..What did, could, you even do with a pork cutlet besides eat it anyway?"

Cue long awkward pause, characterized by failed attempts at disappearing as Ryuuji was right next to her. Damn, Guess she couldn't escape from this one.

"Um, drop it, then throw it and accidentally set my kitchen on fire?" Ami sheepishly replied, shoulders raised slightly as she averted her gaze.

"..." was Ryuuji's response, an incredulous look on his face as he wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. But on a double take of her face, he saw that she wasn't lying.

"I'm sorry alright! Ami-chan never cooks, I just eat convenience store food mostly. Ami-Chan never had the time or need to learn how…" Was Ami's defense, which felt rather weak when she actually said the words aloud.

Ryuuji rubbed his nose and exhaled. Such perfectly good food wasted, he can't let that happen again. "Alright. I'll show you how to cook, just, don't ever do whatever it is that you did again."

She was going to refuse Ryuuji's offer of guidance but stopped herself. This, maybe it was the opportunity she was waiting for. Even if it embarrassingly enough, was entirely unintentional and detrimental to her own self image to admit she couldn't cook to save her life. She just nodded in acceptance to his words, which was the closest to openly accepting defeat as she'd get.

"I don't think you can use Ami-Chan's kitchen though, at least, not for a while. I kind of got banned from using it by my Aunt" Well, that was A half lie. While yes, her aunt had told her to not touch anything in the kitchen beyond the microwave from that point on, her aunt was rarely around, and in practice wouldn't really be able to stop her. It was just her bad fortune that she had been more busy putting out fires and the like that she hadn't known that her aunt had come home early from work. Her motivations were elsewhere.

Ryuuji looked conflicted, unsure as to whether stopping conflict between Taiga and Ami or saving the precious labor of countless farmers produce...ok his mind was made up. "Well, that's..alright I guess. You can come over to use mine, just don't agitate Taiga whenever you see her around."

"Fine~" Ami replied, both pleased that her deception had worked, and displeased that she might have to share the same space as Aisaka. She'd take what she could get though. "Is tomorrow ok with you Takasu-kun? I'm not sure how long the pork will stay fresh in the fridge."

Ryuuji considered her words and remembering the packaging labels, agreed. "Alright just come over with the meat after school. I'll figure something out about Taiga."

Good, then everything was all set for tomorrow, all that was left was to handle the here and now.

Her mood had really done a one-eighty turnabout for the better, but she guessed that just came with being around Ryuuji. Out of the corner of her eyes, in her peripherals the clouds were slowly breaking, the rain was about to cease soon. Looks like it's time to go.

"Hey, Takasu-kun, did you really mean that? Earlier, about me being your friend" Kawashima said, moving her head a little closer to Ryuuji's ear.

Ryuuji pulled back a little to her dismay, but he nodded affirmatively to her words, though unsure as to what to expect from this sudden line of questioning.

"Good, then I can do this" Ami latched onto his arm with her own, bringing the two's pace to a halt as both Ryuuji's feet and breath stopped. Ryuuji's expression was frozen as Ami began speaking in an almost wisplike voice that was still heard through the fading rain falling around them that losing as much intensity as her voice.

"Because friends don't push each other away right." Ami slowly breathed out, drawing herself closer "I-can-be-more-than-just-a-friend, Takasu-kun." She sounded out each word slowly, reveling in the syllables of each one.

"I-I..What do you mean by-" Ryuuji fumbled with his words while simultaneously attempting to pull away from Ami's grasp, but his efforts were interrupted by Kawashima abruptly letting go of his arm and pushing him off. This sudden act ended up unbalancing Ryuuji, sending him crashing into a nearby phone pole, which oddly enough was already tilted. Without looking back Ami began walking off, now unbothered by the clouds above as the rain had finally ceased moments earlier, unbeknownst to the distracted (possibly unconscious) Ryuuji. And she tried not to be bothered by the lack of verbal response coming from him.

"But that would probably never happen, huh Takasu-kun." _You're too busy playing your game of house._ "Anyways, it looks like we can part here. Thanks for sharing your umbrella with me. Ja-Ne~"

And with these words, Ami parted with Ryuuji. Today wasn't the greatest, but she'd have another chance if she had anything to say about it. And hopefully she didn't kill him before that could happen.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

 **Guide to Formatting:**

No such thing as formatting for me, it'll jump around so you'll have to use context clues, sorry~

I also changed the dividers to a more clean line, dividers are time skips (Usually).

[] "Normal Dialogue"

[] _Thoughts or Emphasis or Internal character stuff_

[] **Emphasis** or EMPHASIS

[] A '~' after speech is a drawn out word [] A '-' after speech is an uncompleted or cut off word

[] A 'word-word-word' is speech being spoken as individual words with full stop periods after each.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

Ami was smiling, but not because she was happy or anything of the like. Rather, it was a contrived smile she forced onto her face, one that she wasn't sure she could hold onto for much longer before it spilt into uncontrollable rage. The reason? She was sitting at the Takasu household's kotatsu table opposite of one Aisaka Taiga, who was flipping through a magazine that Ami had once modeled in. That itself wouldn't have been so bad, had Taiga not decided to start drawing numerous crude depictions all over Ami-chan's beautiful visage, and was that a-

"A-Aisaka? Just WHAT in the hell are you doing?"

"Hm, just doing Baka-chi a favor by redecorating" Taiga said, drawing on another set of obscenities onto her face "See, a lot more realistic, be grateful I'm doing this for you."

"...Grateful? Why should Ami-chan be grateful that you're defacing her attractive likeness" Ami snatched the magazine away and held it up for Taiga to look at "with all of this-this!" Ami closed her eyes to try and calm down. This was exactly what Ryuuji told her not to do.

" _Ok Ami, it's just a picture, you said to yourself before that pictures don't mat-"_

Taiga gleefully waved the pen in her hands around, bearing a sadistic grin on her face. "True, I think it could do with some improvements. Starting with..."

Then something inside Ami snapped as Taiga started describing her next set of planned adjustments to magazine-Ami's face.

Ami's eyes flew open, her already weak smile morphing into a snarl as she slammed her hands down on the table with enough force to rattle the ceiling lights. She wasn't taking any more of this shit. She was going to be squeezing the life out of that midget with her bare hands!

But just as the two girls were about to mutually choke each other out, the sound of clicking locks at the front door broke them apart. Both girls broke out of each other's grasp to separate before Ryuuji's impeding entry, though Taiga's face still bore that smug grin just beckoning her to try and tear it off. Which Ami would have been tempted to do had Ryuuji not pushed the screen door to the living room open at that moment. Popping his head through the open entryway, Ryuuji was met with the sight of his friends plopping down on their respective cushion seats simultaneously. Takasu found this peculiar given the fact that he had just heard noises (suspiciously sounding like strangulation) coming from the other side.

" _Huh, must have been my imagination."_ Ryuuji thought. Not seeing any cause for alarm, he shrugged off his suspicions, having failed to notice a rather terrified Inko cowering in its cage where an impaled pen was lodged in the wall inches away. Ryuuji gave the two a small smile, pleased that they hadn't destroyed the place in the short while he was gone.

"You two sure are getting along huh?" Ryuuji said, as he started unpacking some of the ingredients for tonight's dinner.

"Y-yeah." Ami replied, her left eyebrow twitching in irritation as Taiga had decided that moment was a good time to stretch out her legs. Propping them right across her **expensive** designer bag that she was **sure** wasn't there earlier..

..Anyways! Tonight they were supposed to be making shogayaki, assuming nothing horrible like the kitchen bursting into flames. Well, such a thing _probably_ won't happen with Ryuuji's oversight, but you never know...If nothing else, she could use the rice cooker to contribute, right? Then again, she had never needed to make rice before, and Ami didn't think reheating precooked stuff counted. Might as well do what she had claimed she wanted to do, and if the worse comes to worse, so be it.

As Kawashima got on her feet to go help Ryuuji with the prepwork, out of the corner of her eyes, She could see Taiga had gone back to drawing all over...ah, Hell no. Even with Ryuuji here, she wasn't going to let this slide, consequences be damned!

A quick sideways glance ensuring that Ryuuji's back was turned, and Ami reached over to seize control of that cursed magazine out of Taiga's grasp. Her nails yanked as they could without breaking to keep that distorted portrayal of herself from being corrupted any further, but on the opposing side, they were met with just as much force from an equally determined Taiga.

"Like hell I'm going to let that abomination get seen!"

"Heh, Abomination?..at least we can agree on something here." Taiga wholeheartedly agreed to an even more enraged Ami. "A few more changes and it'll be _perfect_."

"Do you think I'm going to let that happen? Damn you, let go of Ami-chan!" Ami hissed, her hushed words directed at Taiga who just as stubbornly refused to yield. To Ami's mounting frustrations, despite her short stature, Taiga was disproportionately strong as Ami tried and failed to gain any ground against the smaller girl.

"Huh..Baka-chi is identifying with the photo now? Tch, all of you washed-up models have something wrong up there in the head."

"Who are you calling a washed up mod-!"

"..Whatever, you can have your ugly magazine. _Take it_." Taiga interjected, abruptly letting go and causing a surprised Ami to fall backwards, overturning the table as her feet kicked up. As she lay on the floor body aching from the sudden fall, Ami's gaze turned towards the kitchen expecting a set of bewildered eyes to fall upon her. Fortunately though, to her relief Ryuuji was too preoccupied with whatever else it was he was unpacking to register the loud thump that came from the living room. Leveling a glare towards the snickering Tiger, Ami quietly flipped the table over and stowed the now torn magazine in her school bag, hoping to give it a proper burial later. By the time Kawashima turned her attention back to Taiga, the other girl had already moved to the other side of the room. Apparently, Taiga had decided to start poking around Ryuuji's fugly bird cage rather than be remotely useful...figures.

Well, no point putting too much thought into it, there were better things to do. Speaking of which..

A glint appeared in her eyes.

Noiselessly sliding the screen door behind herself, Ami approached an unsuspecting Ryuuji who had just about finished unpacking.

Ami leaned in closer to his turned back. Standing on her toes, Ami leaned in towards Ryuuji's head, close enough that if she got any closer she could almost.. Ami pursed her lips together, and lightly blew some air on his neck, watching with a half concealed grin as he fumbled with the knife in his hands and nearly tripped on himself.

"Ack, Kawashima! Don't startle me like that, I'm holding a knife you know."

"Ehhh, I'm sure Takasu-kun will be fine. If you cut yourself it would have been just because you were an i-di-ot" Ami replied innocently.

To that, Ryuuji only mumbled inaudibly in reply as he continued working. Like he was going to believe that when she was still trying (and failing) to hold back her giggling.

"Hmm? There's not alot of ingredients here." Ami noted, referring to the rather sparse countertop. This certainly contrasted with the last time Ami had tried cooking, she had emptied out her kitchen cupboards then.

"Oh, yeah, for shogayaki you actually don't need that many things to make it. There's just pork, ginger, soy sauce, mirin, and some oil for the pan later." Ryuuji said, pointing out each ingredient as he named them. This was the moment that Ryuuji decided to jump right ahead to today's plans, and without a breath's notice, he began going through the steps on turning the ingredients in front of them into a (hopefully) delicious dish.

Immersed in his cooking inspired fervor, Ryuuji failed to notice that his words fell upon deaf ears as Ami was unable to keep up with the sudden and unexpectedly fast flow of information. What did he just say? Mix this with what? Was she supposed to cut or dice the pork..wait no that was the ginger she was supposed to dice right? Or maybe its the other way around, and what was she supposed to do after-

"So if you're ready to start then here you go, everything we'll need is on the counter already." Ryuuji said, having finished up with his all too quick lecture.

"Wha, right now? But I don't, what did you-"

But before any retort could be said, a knife was thrust into her hands and Ami found herself ushered in front of the counter, now unsure of what she was supposed to do. Shit.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

It would have been nice to say that everything went well. That when she walked out of that room, Ami would have triumphantly slammed down a steaming plate of shogayaki and reveled in the expressions of a shocked Tiger who had been mocking her (in)ability to cook.

But that would have been an alternate universe. In this one, what you got was a sulking Ami standing off to the side as Ryuuji did damage control to salvage what little he could of the situation.

It actually hadn't started off that badly. Thankfully, Ryuuji had noticed her confusion, and ignoring her obstinate refusals, went through his instructions a second time at a much slower and more manageable pace. Which she grudgingly listened to, and sort of understood this time around. So at the least, she had all of the steps down in her head. All that had to be done was turning those instructions into results, and by results, something other than a smoking lump of charcoal.

When it came to her knife-work, well, sure her cuts were a somewhat uneven...ok they were ugly, sure.. But what would someone expect from someone who had never held a knife before? Hey at least the pork wasn't one huge slab anymore.

With the ginger, Ami felt that it was easier and faster to use a mallet to smash the root to a pulp, rather than taking the time to dice it with a knife, so she did just that. And presto, one pile of ginger mush in about thirty seconds. Ryuuji might diced it in the same time but whatever, this was close enough. No cut fingers either.

And maybe Ami had accidentally poured a _little_ too much soy sauce, or maybe she should say too little...ok so she had accidently uncapped the whole bottle somehow and dumped its entire contents, splashing it all over the counter, everywhere except into the bowl in front of her. But that was ok right? Pft, who needed soy sauce? Less is more!

Well, maybe the growing look of disbelief on Ryuuji's face at what was unfolding in front of him begged to differ. But overall, Ami thought that she had done pretty well for her first time cooking.

So where did it go wrong?

It was just, eh, when it came to sauteing the pork slices, she kinda freaked out a little when the oil started crackling and jumped upwards. Her worry turned to panic when that pan turned into a billowing column of smoke once the pork started burning. By the time she had the sense to pull herself away from what was turning into a scene from a Kitchen Nightmares episode, she forgot the iron grip she still had clenched around the pan's handle, sending its content's airborne.

In that moment, as slices of half cooked pork somersaulted through the air, she knew that she has screwed up..and when the contents of that pan, hot oil and all, found their way on a path towards Ryuuji's face...badly.

She was just lucky Ryuuji's sense of self preservation kicked in, and that he had thrown himself out of the way just in time to avoid a very unpleasant meeting with a faceful of scalding liquid.

What wasn't so lucky, was the miso soup which Takasu had been preparing on the countertop adjacent to her, and just about everything else there. Ryuuji had abandoned his stock pot by tossing it aside in his hurry to save himself, and in doing so, had inadvertently started a chain reaction that led to everything else on the kitchen counter being either smashed underneath the weight of the heavy metal pot, or carried away onto the floor in a torrent of half cooked miso and water.

So that was basically how an hour of progress went to waste in the span of about one minute.

Raising her head, Ami saw that Ryuuji was still poking around in the mess that she had started. And guessing from the looks of it, there wasn't anything left that could be saved. But the biggest thing that Ami noticed wasn't spilled soup intermingled with oily fragments of ginger, nor was it the shattered ceramic dishes strewn about the floor.

No, it was how calmly Ryuuji had taken the whole thing. Bewildered sure, that much showed on his face when a bunch of hot oil started flying in his direction, but by the time the dust had settled, he had just wordlessly turned his back and bent down to start shoveling ceramics into a dustpan. Like nothing had even happened.

This reaction was equally unnerving and unexpected, what she HAD expected was being berated for her clumsiness, Ryuuji muttering his discontent, voicing disapproval over wasted food, just anything really. Knowing Takasu, it would, should have been some mixture of the three, so why hadn't he said something? He had a bizarre obsession for cleaning, sure, but-

Ami wouldn't have much time to keep thinking on this, because a series of loud yells emanated from the living room, sending two pairs of feet scrambling to the doorway to see just what the hell was going on in there.

"Ryuuji! Watch out!" Taiga cried out frantically.

"Taiga? What's going on-oomph" Ryuuji said as a mouthful of green feathers crashed into his face. Inko-chan? What was she doing outside of her cage?

"No time! Ryuuji get Inko-chan before she flies away!" Taiga hurriedly gesturing towards the open kitchen window behind him. It took a few moments for Taiga's intentions to become clea-

Oh no. If Inko flies through there, especially at this time of night.. !

"Kawashima! Close the window, Hurry!" Ryuuji exclaimed as he tried his best to restrain a squirming Inko. He was quickly losing his grip though.

"Huh, oh. Got it!" Ami said, stepping away from the doorway she had been sticking her head through and moving towards the window.

"Argh! I can't hold on much-!" Ryuuji yelled, and moments later, Inko burst out of Ryuuji's hands, making a beeline towards the window. Which sent Ami into a panic as she fumbled with the jammed window to snap it shut.

"Takasu-kun, I can't close it, it's, it's stuck!" Ami said, tugging on the window pane to no avail. For a moment though, she stopped struggling to unjam it. When Ami thought about it, it's not like she'd really mind if the fugly bird flew off to some distant corner of the world far away from civilization. Maybe she should just let nature take its course when a hawk inevitably flew over.. Ok that was a bit mean, back to pulling on the window like her life depended on it.

Just as it seemed that Inko was going to make it outside the apartment to a potentially short-lived freedom, for whatever reason, Inko decided to suddenly veer off course and glided back inside the living room. Which presented a new set of problems in the form of a revolving ceiling fan in the center of the room. Especially when it was turned onto the highest setting, presenting a very deadly hazard to the frail bird that was Inko-chan.

Apparently yanking on the fan's chain to shut it off did no good, Ryuuji soon found out, holding a broken chain in his hand. Damn it! The cheap thing had snapped on him, and the very bird unfriendly wooden blades were still spinning as fast ever. With Inko still wildly flying around, followed by Taiga who was desperately chasing Inko across the room and knocking over most of the furniture in the process, it was only a matter of time before one of them got hurt.

Ryuuji needed to find a solution, and fast. Something to catch Inko without hurting it or Taiga, something! Anything! Think!

"Takasu-kun! Catch!"

A mass of cloth landed in his arms. That solution came in the form of a large blanket that Ami had fished out of the closet being tossed over. Oh! An improvised net, that much Ryuuji could understand quickly enough. Each taking hold of one end of the large quilt, they aimed for the center of the room where Taiga was trying to grab Inko from under the Kotatsu table. Tossing the blanket forward, they pulled down on both ends, successfully snagging Inko underneath the weight of the cloth, meanwhile catching a now angry Taiga in the process.

"Mmmm! Rymmuujiii get this offmmm mmmee!" Came Taiga's muffled voice from underneath.

"Wait Taiga, do you feel Inko-Chan from under there? Can you grab her?" Ryuuji inquired, ignoring the ever increasing amount of yelling from Taiga's ensnared position.

"Mmm yes! Just lemmph mmmeee out!"

"Ok! Just keep a good grip of Inko-chan ok Taiga! And don't hurt her!" Ryuuji said, cautiously lifting his side of the blanket up, out from which came Taiga gasping for air.

"Hhhuuu, huff, Ryuuji! What the hell, were you thinking you mongrel! I could have suffocated under there! And stop laughing Baka-chi!" Taiga Said, indignant both at having been sacrificed to catch Inko, and even more so at the blue haired girl obnoxiously laughing her ass off behind Ryuuji.

"Uh, Taiga?" Ryuuji said, confusion on his face.

"What?" Taiga said, turning her glare towards him.

"Where's Inko-chan? That's.." He lifted his hand to point at the contents of Taiga's hands.

"What do you mean, she's right, here?" Taiga said as she raised her clasped palms. But Rather than the green parakeet Taiga expected to be locked within her grasp, all she held was a fistful of blonde hair. _Her_ own blond hair to be precise. Ami started laughing harder.

At that two of the rooms occupants started panicking, searching for Inko before something horrible happened to the poor bird. A few muffled words and an outstretched hand from where Ami stood pulled their gaze towards the corner of the room. Directed right at a small cylindrical birdcage, where Inko sat fidgeting with an empty seed tray after flying back inside.

Damn stupid bird.

Was the shared thought of three individuals, all for different reasons.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

With a sigh, Ryuuji closed the clasp on Inko-chan's cage, who was happily pecking away at the sunflower seeds in its feeder. Less than an hour ago, his home had been meticulously organized, and most of all, clean. Now, not so much. Molted feathers were scattered across the floor, the tatami mat flooring was upturned, and what little furniture he owned had been knocked over. Ryuuji even found a pen embedded in the wall that he would have to patch up later. And the kitchen too.

Mottainai!

It had taken a while, but he had finally managed to set everything back into order. Luckily for him, nothing too important had actually been broken inside of the living room. Well, aside from the broken ceiling fan chain that he wouldn't be able to turn off now, but that could be dismissed as superficial damages. In the end, It was nothing a bit of string couldn't fix.

"Ryuuji, Ryuuuji." Taiga said, grabbing hold of his arms and shaking him with enough force to rattle his brain. "I'm huuungry, what's taking dinner so long."

"Dinner? But Taiga the only thing left for dinner is-" Ryuuji clasped his own hands over his mouth. What was left of dinner was currently sitting in the wastebin.

"What? What's left for dinner? Hurry up already I'm starving, now that you're done cleaning we should eat now right? How can you take longer with two people cooking, Baka-chi can't be _that_ useless, Fooooood." Taiga said, latching onto his clothes tighter as she bombarding him with questions/complaints.

"Uh…" Ryuuji's eyes flicked towards the kitchen. "Just wait a little bit Taiga, the foods, ah, almost ready. Oh I know, can you check on Inko-Chan and see if she's ok?" Ryuuji said, perspiration building along his neck as he started inching his way towards the door.

"But Ryuuji, how am I going to see Inko-Chan if you hung her all the way up there?" Taiga's said, bending her head upwards at the cage which Ryuuji had hung up out of reach.

"...I'll be back in a bit!" Ryuuji hurriedly said, retreating towards the kitchen before Taiga could respond.

Ryuuji slammed the thin shoji-paper divider shut, as though it could protect him from what stood on the other side. His body slowly filled with dread over what was to come. Taiga wasn't likely to remain patient for very long. Knowing her, she wasn't going to be satisfied with anything less than a meat based dish tonight, and a pot of plain white rice wasn't going to cut it tonight.. Especially when he had promised to Taiga the night before to hold off on eating meat so that they could have an even better dinner today. Just what was he even thinking.

Try as one might, even as he desperately rummaged through the fridge, Ryuuji already knew that he wasn't going to find anything he was looking for. It was just stalling of the inevitable, when he opened that door...Ryuuji shuddered, he was done for.

And just where the hell was Kawashima anyway? He wasn't sure exactly when she had left, but the last thing he could recall was her voice echoing from down the hallway as she claimed she 'needed to do something real quick'. Was she hiding in the bathroom or something? It could have been anywhere from ten to thirty minutes now, but he guessed that none of it really mattered when he was going to have an hangry Taiga bearing down on him any moment now.

Then came a loud thud from the exterior door. Oh god, Taiga was livid at him, he could even hear faint yelling coming from outside. Instinctually, Ryuuji latched the door lock, though he knew that sooner or later, he was going to have to open it to face Taiga's ire. He didn't want to die young!

"Oi, Takasu! Open the door, your cheap doorbell is bro-wait, did you just lock the door on me? WHAT THE HELL?" Came the irate voice on the other side.

Wait. Outside? When he thought about it, wasn't Taiga still in the living room? Then who was the person outside his..Ryuuji cautiously cracked open the door.

"Kawashima? Oh, thank god it was just you."

"What do you mean it was just me? Ugh, forget it...just, here". Ami shoved a nearly overfilled bag into his hands.

"What's this?" Ryuuji asked, the bag certainly had some heft to it. More than enough food for three people.

"What do you think I went out for at this time of day, a stroll? It's tonight's dinner." Ami said, rolling her eyes.

"Huh, Kawashima, you managed to buy more pork? I thought that the supermarket would be closed at this hour." Ryuuji said as he glanced downwards at the contents of the plastic bag in his hands. It felt a bit warm in his hands though..

"Wait.." That smell, was it what he thought it was? Ryuuji pulled out one of the packages at the top. "Convenience store food?"

Ryuuji laid out the contents of Ami's haul across the counter. Two family-size boxes of karaage, a container of mixed seaweed salad, and a few other assorted things that Ryuuji was sure no one should ever eat on a regular basis.

"I didn't go to a supermarket, not like I could have anyways with them all closed by now. And the convenience stores near here obviously don't have uncooked meat stocked at this time of day, so Ami-Chan just went to an automat to get this stuff.."

"So it really is all convenience food, to be honest, I wouldn't have considered going out to buy this kind of stuff from vending machines." Ryuuji remarked, flipping over one of the boxes to read the labels. "Yeah, no one should be eating this kind of stuff often." Ryuuji shifted his gaze over to the known junk-food binge eater. He was pretty sure pockey wasn't a usual dinner item, and the speed at which Ami snatched it out of his hands confirmed it.

"It doesn't make up for, everything earlier, but the least I could do is this I guess." Ami continued, shifting around uncomfortably where she stood. "Let's just get this done, I'm sure Aisaka is hungry by now and I think both of us prefer you alive Takasu-kun."

"..Alright, then can you start opening the packages for me? It seems kind of wrong to eat this stuff as an evening meal normally. But not much of a choice in the matter this time."

That night, Taiga complained about waiting so long just to end up eating soggy chicken that she **swore** tasted like the stuff they sold down at the station.

 **Author's** **Note** : Thanks for reading.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

 **Guide to Formatting:**

No such thing as formatting for me, it'll jump around so you'll have to use context clues, sorry~

I also changed the dividers to a more clean line, dividers are time skips (Usually).

[] "Normal Dialogue"

[] Thoughts or Emphasis or Internal character stuff

[] **Emphasis** or EMPHASIS

[] A '~' after speech is a drawn out word [] A '-' after speech is an uncompleted or cut off word

[] A 'word-word-word' is speech being spoken as individual words with full stop periods after each.

o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o


End file.
